Flower and Herb Garden...

Hope you are all having a lovely summer.  We are busy as usual and I'm really enjoying gardening more this year than in the last several years.  The photo above is part of my flower and herb garden.  It is really full this year from all the rain we've had.  The garden contains Hostas, Hydrangea, Thyme, Sedum, Daylilly, Lemon Balm and Rosemary.  

Jackie

Each Day Is A New Beginning...

Some people hate wild honeysuckle.  I love it.  This is one of the photos I took yesterday and added the quote.  Enjoy your Saturday!

Jackie

Spring Is Here...

Glad to see that Spring is finally making it's way to our part of the country.  To celebrate, here are a few spring/summer photos I've taken in the last year.

Hope you are enjoying some warm weather wherever you are.

Until Next Time,


Jackie

{Kindness}

Daylily Series: Something Wonderful...

--jackie

*Daylily is from my backyard garden and Photo 3 in my Daylily quote series.

Daylily Series: The Best And Most Beautiful Things...

--jackie

*Daylily is from my backyard garden and Photo 2 in my Daylily quote series.

Daylily Series: All We Have Is All We Need...

--jackie

*Daylily is from my backyard garden and Photo 1 in my Daylily quote series.

Coffee On The Patio...

Most mornings, time permitting, I sit on my back patio with coffee, journal, bible and sometimes my camera.  After the passing of my Mother-in-Law yesterday and the anxiety about the upcoming funeral, I decided I needed to focus on something else...at least for awhile.  I turned my focus to what I could see through the camera lens from my chair on the patio.  My hour or so outside this morning was healing. 

Sometimes you need to see some beauty through all the sadness.

--jackie

Peace and Quiet...

Can you have too many Hydrangea Bushes?  I don't think so.   Seven...that's how many I counted today in my yard and I'm thinking about another one.  All but one of them are in my backyard...where I spend most of the time when I'm outside. 

Peaceful...and Quiet...That's what they say to me...and Old Fashioned like what you might see at your Grandma's house.

The pink one in the above photo is under my office window at the back of the house, but it looks to me like it belongs in front of a shabby old farmhouse with white peeling paint.  My farmhouse porch would be surrounded by hydrangeas and I would be sitting on my porch swing with a warm breeze blowing.  I'd be looking out at my garden and see hollyhocks, pole beans and heirloom tomatoes. Now, that's a sweet daydream.

 

You know, I've been nursing these beauties for approximately seven years now.  They have had just a few blooms in those years.  This year...they are covered.  I feel like all my nurturing has paid off.  Or it's some quirk of nature...which is what happens so often in my garden.  

See that bowl of water in the photo above?  It's my DIY bird bath.  An old stump with an overturned clay pot placed on it and the dish of water on top...with a pretty rock in it.  I catch someone taking a bath in it almost every time I go out back.  It's surrounded by Lemon Balm, Hostas and Daylillies with my Blue Hydrangea in the foreground.   It's one of my favorite spots in the garden.  Lately...this is where I spend my early mornings before everyone else is awake.  Drinking coffee with vanilla caramel creamer, contemplating my day, praying and enjoying the peace and quiet of summer mornings.

 

Time for a refill on my coffee...I hope you find some peace...and quiet...today as well.  Have a great Sunday.


--jackie

Early Spring Backyard Birds and Blooms

I took a walk around the backyard this weekend in between rain showers and caught a few shots of plants blooming and birds nesting and feeding.  There has been a lot of backyard action in the last few weeks with our early spring here in Missouri.  I realized in the last couple of months during my blogging hiatus that I am inspired to write after I take photos and usually NOT the other way around. I have missed writing and look forward to spending more time with my journal in the next few months and hope to have a few more posts here as well.  

I hope you enjoy my views from my brief walk...

Until Next Time,

Jackie

Our Hummingbirds returned yesterday!

Gerbera Daisy and Marigold...

Chatting about how they wish I would leave so they can get to their house on the deck...

This one is getting more brave and getting a little closer to me...

Potted Hydrangea and Broken Dish...

Clematis Spilling Over Wooden Box and Old Desk...

Old Glory...

Newly Potted Petunia...

Clematis After RainShower...

Fading Lilac...

Thoughts On Fall...

Every season has it's beauty.  Fall may be the most spectacular of the four seasons, in my opinion.  I sort of like the melancholy feeling this time of year and it's appropriate for me right now.  I'm enjoying the fading blooms, falling leaves and the way the earth is preparing itself for the coming winter. My flower gardens are withering away, getting ready for the months of frigid cold that are ahead.  I like the idea of starting over with each season and this one is no different. I'm looking forward to the upcoming holidays and staying inside spending time doing things that I don't have time to do in the warmer months.  As I walked around my yard yesterday, I tried to notice the beauty in all of the fading and wilting happening around me.  When I looked closely at each plant, area of my yard or portion of the sky ..instead of the whole fading and withering scene...I could really see it...The beauty in the browns and yellows and reds. 

I hope you, too, can see it wherever you are.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.

Jackie

 

The Reason For Dandelions...

 

Why spend my time ridding my yard of dandelions when the backyard provides a virtual field of flowers for a sweet 5 year old boy to give to his Mom as he softly says, "Here is a beautiful flower for you, Mom."  "I Love You".

O DANDELION 

O Dandelion, yellow as gold, what do you do all day?
“I just wait here in the tall, green grass, ’till the children come to play.”

O Dandelion, yellow as gold, what do you do all night?
“I wait and wait, while the cool dew falls, and my hair grows long and white.”

And what do you do when your hair grows white, and the children come to play?
“They take me in their dimpled hands, and blow my hair away!”

- by Marlys Swinger 

And...It's a New Day...

Today, I woke up with a new feeling of hope.  Things will be beautiful again.  My garden helps me, as it always does, to see the promises of the future.

Isaiah 41:10 (New Living Translation)

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
      Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
   I will strengthen you and help you.
      I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

A Peony bud...promising to bloom soon...

A struggling Azalea in my front yard that decided this was the year it was going to overflow with beautiful blooms...

Ladybug friends on the Lemon Balm...

Lilacs just about to bloom...

My neighbors Dogwood Tree that graces us with it's beauty every single year...I have a perfect view of it from my deck...

Blessings,

Jackie

Springtime in the garden...

...is, quite possibly, the loveliest time of the year!

small...dotted friend on the lemon balm...

longtime garden decor...painted brown, blue and now red...

Lilacs starting to bloom and filling the air with their sweet scent...

A clubhouse with a perfectly natural opening. Club meetings held here everyday after school...

North-looking view of my newest flower garden...

Salad for dinner?

A potted herb garden. Thyme. Chives. Rosemary. Oregano.
And...if you look in the background here you can almost see raised bed #2 that hubby built me for Mother's Day!

Chives in my new Cutting Garden. Cosmos, Zinnias and Snapdragons Coming Soon...I hope...


Blooming Lilacs produce beautiful arrangements for my dining room table...bathroom counter...living room table...etc...

Jackie